Monthly Archives: January 2015

Let us continue to rejoice in the benefits God has so graciously bestowed on us throughout 2014. We’re working through this passage from the Psalms:

Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.  (Psalm 103:1-5)

On Monday we rejoiced in the truth that God forgives all our sins. Today let’s look at a second blessing:

He Heals All Your Diseases

Make no mistake; our Great Physician is able to heal every one of our diseases. We read about many such healings throughout the Scriptures. Lepers were cleansed. Blind men were made to see. The lame were made to walk. The dead were raised to life.

But I believe what David had in view when he wrote this psalm was not so much physical diseases as the spiritual disease that afflicts us all. Luke’s gospel provides a wonderful example of this truth:

Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . .” He said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. (Luke 5:18-25)

Luke recounted the divine healing of the paralyzed man, but there is a deeper message in this story. The most important malady Jesus healed was spiritual. Our Lord’s expression of grace—“Friend, your sins are forgiven”—is the one thing everyone needs to hear!

To be sure, physical healing is a wonderful gift from God, and we praise Him for the many physical healings we ourselves have received and have seen in others. But the disease that we most desperately need to be healed of is the sin nature that separates us from God. Look again at Luke’s account and see how this truth is expressed in the order of what Jesus did. He healed the man spiritually first (“Your sins are forgiven”); then He healed him physically (“Get up and walk”).

It’s important to recognize that even if the physical healing had not come—and it does not always come in this lifetime—the man would have received what He needed most: forgiveness of sin and the end of his alienation from God. As David wrote elsewhere in the Psalms, “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him” (Psalm 32:1-2).

Blessed indeed! And if you have not yet received that blessing, I urge you not to wait another moment. You can be united with God for all eternity simply by trusting in the fact that He became a man and died on the cross for your sins. “Confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!    

As we begin this first full week of 2015, I would like to take a brief look back at 2014 and consider all the benefits God has bestowed on you. This will be a three-part message, rooted in these inspired words from one of David’s magnificent psalms:

Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103:1-5)

Of course, we could never be able to count up all of God’s blessings in our lives, but in this passage we see some wonderful thoughts for us to consider! Let’s take a look.

He Forgives All Your Sins

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.  (Psalm 103:12)

[The Lord says] “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”  (Isaiah 43:25)

You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.  (Micah 7:19)

It is instructive to see that David began his explanation of all the Lord’s benefits with forgiveness of sins, because without that forgiveness, what else really matters? And notice just how forgiven we really are! How far is the east from the west? It cannot be measured; it is a distance that can never be spanned. No matter how far you travel west, you will still have just as far to travel to reach the west!

God has assured us that He will remember our sins no more. Now, that is not the same as forgetting (as you and I might “forget” where we left our car keys), because God cannot forget. All things come from God (Romans 11:36) and all His works are known to him from eternity (Acts 15:18). But God chooses to remember our sins no more. He has blotted them out, meaning He will never bring them up against us for any reason. And that is because our sins were nailed to the cross through Jesus Christ.

Finally, picture God hurling all your sins into the depths of the sea. One of my favorite authors, Jerry Bridges, encouraged us in The Gospel for Real Life to note the force of the word hurl used in Micah 7:19. God “doesn’t just drop [our sins] over the side or even pitch them overboard,” Bridges wrote; “He hurls them as something to be rid of and forgotten.”

And then Bridges reminds his readers of a sweet phrase penned by the late Corrie ten Boom, who wrote, “And then God put up a sign saying, ‘No fishing allowed.’” There is no need for us to dredge up old sins and feel badly about them; God has placed them as far from us as the east is from the west; He has determined not to remember them; it is as if they had been hurled into the depths of the sea, never to be seen again.

So as you begin this New Year, it is important that we forget not the fact that God forgives all our sins. God’s forgiveness is the unshakeable foundation upon which a life of discipleship to Jesus is built. We’ll talk more about this on Wednesday.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!    

If you are like most of us, you have prayerfully considered some things you would like to be different about 2015 compared to last year. This may have led you down “The Road of Resolve.” Perhaps you . . .

• Resolve to get in better shape
• Resolve to earn better grades
• Resolve to spend more wisely
• Resolve to be more organized
• Resolve to be more patient
• Resolve to serve more
• Resolve to save more
• Resolve to give more
• Resolve to forgive quickly
• Resolve to love unconditionally
• Resolve to pray unceasingly

Did I miss one of your resolutions? The Scriptures make it crystal clear that the redeemed of God are right to resolve. Noah resolved to build the ark that God called him to build (Genesis 6). Abraham resolved to follow wherever God was leading him (Genesis 12). Joseph resolved to trust God, even when he couldn’t understand being sold into slavery and taken down into Egypt (Genesis 39-50). Daniel resolved in his heart not to defile himself with the king’s food (Daniel 1). Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego resolved not to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol (Daniel 3). Mary resolved to respond by faith to the news she received from the angel Gabriel concerning the virgin birth of the Son of God (Luke 1). John the Baptist resolved to be a voice crying out in the wilderness to prepare the way for Jesus (Matthew 3). After his encounter with Jesus, Zacchaeus, the tax collector, resolved to repay anyone he had cheated four times the original amount (Luke 19).

Resolve is right and good; but Christian, keep in mind that our resolve must be rooted in our relationship with our Redeemer. To resolve to do anything, big or small, apart from the strength of the Almighty is to set ourselves up for discouragement and defeat. You see, even when we resolve to accomplish something—and even if we actually do accomplish it in our own strength—it is merely a work of the flesh done for the glory of the flesh.

Jesus told [His disciples], “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.” “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.  (Matthew 26:31-35)

Notice the problem with Peter’s resolve: it was rooted in a single word . . . “I” . . . which is the shortest distance between resolve and retreat! And that is exactly what happened to Peter on that terrible night. He was thrown into humiliating retreat by a servant girl and denied Jesus three times, just as the Lord had said. Peter’s self-confident “I” turned into a bitter cry of utter retreat. Peter had built his resolve on the first part of Philippians 4:13—“I can do all things”—but he missed the most important part of that verse—“through Christ who strengthens me.” And that, beloved, is the key that will return multiple rewards from every resolve you make this New Year.

To be sure, your resolve may not turn out just as you had hoped it would! Your picture of accomplishment may not be the picture of accomplishment the Almighty has planned for you. But when your resolve is rooted in the strength of your Savior, you can be confident that you will reap a harvest of rewards you never expected in ways you never imagined!

I speak from personal experience. I can’t tell you how many times I resolved to do something, bathed it in prayer, believed it by faith, and built it in His strength. Yet the finished product was nothing like I had pictured at the outset. And every single time what God had planned for me was always much better than what I had planned! Isn’t that just like our God? He is able to do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).

Christian believer, prayerfully consider each and every resolve you believe God is calling you to make; just keep them rooted in your Redeemer. The psalmist prayed, “Deal bountifully with your servant” (Psalm 119:17 ESV). He was expecting blessings from God because he was a servant of God who was working in the strength of God for the glory of God. It is right to expect God’s blessings when our resolve is rooted in our Redeemer.

As you ready yourself for another New Year and feel new resolve, remain rooted and built up in your Redeemer, being confident that you can do all the things God desires you to do this year through Christ who strengthens you.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!